Fifth Tibetan in a week dies from self-immolation

Tsewang Kyab, 23, set himself on fire on Friday evening on the main street of Amuquhu town in Xiahe county

Tibetan exiles pray as they participate in a Flame of Truth march seeking intervention from the United Nations to press the Chinese government to end its repression in Tibet Photograph: Manish Swarup/AP

Associated Press in Beijing

Saturday 27 October 2012 01.36 EDT
First published on Saturday 27 October 2012 01.36 EDT

Xinhua said that Lhamo Tseten was a 23-year-old villager and that he set himself on fire near a hospital.

Calls to local governments in both Xiahe and the higher administration Gannan prefecture rang unanswered on Saturday.

In the past week in Xiahe, which is in Gansu province, a herdsman, a farmer and a man in his late 20s also died after setting themselves on fire.

Dozens of ethnic Tibetans have set themselves on fire in heavily Tibetan regions since March 2011 to protest what activists say is Beijing's heavy-handed rule in the region. Many have called for the return of the Dalai Lama, their exiled spiritual leader.

Xiahe is home to Labrang Monastery, which is one of the most important outside of Tibet and was the site of numerous protests by monks following deadly ethnic violence in Tibet in 2008 that was the most sustained Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule in decades.

Police in the region are offering tipsters a reward of $7,700 (£4,700) for information about planned self-immolations in a bid to stem the tide of protests.

The protests are coming at a sensitive time, with China's Community Party planning a once-in-a-decade power transfer in less than two weeks in Beijing.